Brakes completes Warrington warehouse deal

Brake Brothers has signed up for 200,000 sq ft of new warehouse space at Warrington’s Omega North site, ending six months of speculation.

The deal - trailed since June - was completed as the logistics property business closed down for Christmas.

The Brakes deal is the first at the 80-acre Omega North site, the first phase of the 575-acre Omega development near junction 8 of the M62 motorway.

Brakes are expected to be followed by a series of other deals likely to complete in the new year prompted by the tightening supply of good North West logistics floorspace. Market speculation says that Asda will take around 500,000 sq ft, Hermes around 145,000 sq ft and Travis Perkins 400,000 sq ft.

The Brakes deal has been funded by the Northern Ireland Local Government Offices’ Superannuation Committee, clients of LaSalle Investment Management.

Omega is developed by a joint venture between Miller Developments and KUC Properties Ltd, in partnership with The Homes and Communities Agency and supported by Warrington Borough Council.

Works to facilitate the new warehouse have commenced, central to which is an infrastructure contract totalling £7m for an access road and associated services that will open up Omega North for further industrial/ logistics occupiers.

Nick Smart, Brakes’ supply chain director, said: “The decision to build this new site in Warrington fits with our long-term strategy to meet our growth projections by investing in our network, ensuring that we are in a healthy position to meet growing demand in the North West and continuing to provide our customers with the market-leading levels of service they have come to expect from Brakes. The new site will be home to a state of the art multi-temperature food service distribution centre, enabling us to operate a full-service distribution network to service the area from Warrington.”

Andrew Sutherland, joint managing director of Miller Developments, said: “At a time of shortage of high quality logistics space in the North West, Omega North is now a leading destination and very much open for business. This latest announcement is very much testament to that.”

Practical completion for the Brakes premises and associated infrastructure is scheduled for August 2013. Chetwoods is the architect and Jones Lang LaSalle and GVA are joint letting/funding agents.